BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME | The Role of Canaletto’s Veduta and Batoni’s Portraits in Creating the Image of English Aristocracy with Sylvia Sagona

The 18th century Grand Tour was about aristocratic male bonding across cultures. Proof of the experience would be exhibited on the walls of manors across England where fellow cognoscenti could identify with the experience. Canaletto developed a new type of urban landscape, the veduta, to cater for this self advertising, while Pompeo Batoni‘s portraits portrayed the transformation from youth to gentleman.

SYLVIA SAGONA is an internationally recognised specialist on 19th century French society. She retired from the French Department at The University of Melbourne to work on historical documentaries for French and Australian television and is currently researching a book on the invention of the restaurant in Paris in the 18th century.

Bernardo Bellotto (Canaletto) (circa 1721/2 –1780), Capriccio with the Colosseum, Italy, 1743-44, collection of Galleria Nazionale, Parma, Italy